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How Texas politicians destroyed Union Station

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by da1, Mar 10, 2013.

  1. da1

    da1 Member

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    Local leaders missed an opportunity to incorporate commuter rail into plans for downtown ballpark.
    By Franklin Denson | March 7, 2013 | Updated: March 8, 2013 8:10pm

    When a group of people, either public or private, is willing to exert itself to make something beneficial for the community happen, it's sad when leaders in the public/political sector stand idly by and watch the opportunity slip away.

    That, in a nutshell, is the story of commuter rail in Houston. I know. I was there.

    The Texas Limited was a passenger train that ran between Houston and Galveston from 1989 through 1996. I started it with the financial backing of George P. Mitchell and others, and a total investment of $7 million.

    My background was in the operating department of the Santa Fe Railway Co. It took me six years to negotiate the trackage rights with the railroads, something that had never been done before, at least in this part of the country.

    In 1994, while still operating the Texas Limited, an architect friend of mine and I decided to apply for a federal grant, offered under the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA), to restore Houston's Union Station to a functioning multimodal transportation center. We could apply for $2 million if we agreed to put up a matching $500,000. Harris County agreed to be the sponsor. We did this and were successful in qualifying for the grant. The owner of the station was H.B.&T. Railway Co., which agreed to put up the $500,000 if we would help them sell the property after the restoration was complete.

    Commuter trains would now be able to connect the suburbs with the central business district and interconnect with Metro buses.

    The architect and I went to Austin to appear before the Texas Highway Commissioners, who administered ISTEA in Texas, to officially be apprised of our Union Station project being selected as an ISTEA grant recipient.

    While there, I was approached by a man who told me that he worked for then-Mayor Bob Lanier, a vehement and outspoken foe of rail, and that he had been sent to Austin to either persuade me not to accept the grant or, that failing, to convince the commissioners to withdraw the grant. He seemed to delight in his assignment. He failed on both counts.

    The next day in Houston it was announced that Ken Lay, then Enron CEO and later a convicted felon, had put together a prominent group of Houston leaders who would lead a group to buy Union Station as a site upon which to build a new stadium for the Astros. It would be called, "The Ballpark at Union Station." Shortly thereafter, the name was changed to Enron Field, which lasted until Enron's collapse.

    I was thrilled to hear of this, thinking now not only of commuter trains coming into the station but also of trainloads of baseball fans, which is what you have in cities such as New York and Chicago.

    The architects, HOK of Kansas City, must have also been enthused as they included the name Texas Limited along with tracks coming into the back of the station in the original site plan before ever speaking with me.

    About this time, the Harris County Sports Authority was created with Jack Rains and Billy Burge running it. They advised my attorney, Roland Chamberlin, and me that, in order to pursue our project, we should work with a pair of attorneys the authority had retained. After several meetings with them it was clear that nobody at the authority had any interest in trying to help preserve rail at Union Station. This was driven home after I met with Mike Surface, who worked for Harris County. During a meeting with him, he told me that in order to effect a multi-million-dollar construction cost savings the footprint of the stadium was going to be moved south all the way to Texas Avenue, thereby covering the space where tracks could be laid. I did not believe him. I called the lead architect at HOK, with whom I had had previous discussions, and asked if this was true. He told me he had never heard of such a thing. Surface subsequently left the employ of the county and became a developer doing work for Harris County. Recently he and former County Commissioner Jerry Eversole were convicted of and pleaded guilty to bribery. ("Eversole and Surface avoid prison sentences," Page A1, Jan. 5).

    After my conversation with the HOK architect, I contacted then-Houston City Councilman Rob Todd who had shown an interest in my project. I related to him this sequence of events. I told him that I thought, in the interests of the citizens, it was imperative that an outside third party engineer be brought in to look into the validity of this construction cost savings story. Todd asked me to appear before City Council to make this request, which I did. They were so interested in wanting to hear about this that they waived the usual two-minute limit. I spoke to them and answered questions for half an hour. That was on a Tuesday. After I finished, Todd canvassed the other council members and came back to tell me that we had a very strong majority. I came back the following Wednesday when they voted. Todd canvassed them again before the vote and this time told me that all of our support had evaporated overnight. Mayor Lanier was there one of the days but I don't remember which. Go figure.

    During this time, I met on more than one occasion with members of the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance seeking their help. They had previously given me their "Good Brick" award for creating the Texas Limited. To my disappointment in my last meeting with them, two of their members, Minette Boessel and Ramona Davis, implored me to go away.

    My friends at the railroads, George Mitchell and other friends, were the ones who helped me. The bringing about of commuter rail service to a restored historic Union Station enjoyed little or no friendship amongst Houston's power structure and establishment.

    In 1996, I ceased operating the Texas Limited in spite of its popularity with the public and closed down the little depot we had built in Houston off of T.C. Jester. Its original purpose was to evolve and expand into a larger publicly owned and operated commuter rail system. After repeated failed efforts to interest Metro, the city and the county to get involved, we decided its continued private operation was pointless.

    Periodically, since that time, there have appeared announcements in the media concerning renewed attempts to revive Houston-Galveston passenger rail service. (Train spotter? Page B6, Aug. 8, 2012). These attempts at revival, from what I read, are orchestrated by Barry Goodman, a transit consultant. On more than one occasion, they have involved bringing locomotives and cars to Houston and having a "demonstration run" to Galveston and back, all at taxpayer expense I would bet.

    Given the fact that the Texas Limited ran on a regular basis for six years what, pray tell, is being demonstrated?

    I have moved on. After 1996 I formed F.M. Denson & Co., a commercial/industrial real estate brokerage firm. Drawing upon my background in railroad operations and my railroad contacts I specialize in dealing in land that is or can be rail-served and also provide rail consulting services. My clients include freight rail customers as well as railroads.

    Carving out this specialized niche for myself in the commercial real estate world has been very fulfilling. I am delighted to say that I have been able to make lemonade out of lemons.
     
  2. Dairy Ashford

    Dairy Ashford Member

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    Christ almighty that was borrifying. Trains are not nearly as interesting as middle-aged guys think they are. Did I read this grifter wanted to connect the suburbs to the Metro city bus? That alone would be enough to kill it.
     
  3. da1

    da1 Member

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    By this point it would've connected to the red line, and if university line and uptown line were completed would connect to galleria as well. But no we gotta have our freedom and drive everywhere by golly!
     
  4. Refman

    Refman Contributing Member

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    It was a unique opportunity to move people to the stadium efficiently and to connect downtown with the other lines that are planned. This is how rail that has been successful elsewhere has been designed. Dallas and Seattle come to mind. Both DART and Sound Transit are growing both in area served and ridership. The point is that we have blown an opportunity.
     
  5. bigtexxx

    bigtexxx Contributing Member

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    Define "successful" more clearly. And what role does cost play in this?
     
  6. Refman

    Refman Contributing Member

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    You can define successful by the acceptance of rail as a viable transportation alternative. Sound Transit in Seattle was pretty full when I rode it in 2010.

    Cost considerations would have supported utilizing Union Station since the county would not have to acquire additional land or build an entire new structure. It would have been a use of existing resources.
     
  7. da1

    da1 Member

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    What role does cost have in building freeways?
     
  8. REEKO_HTOWN

    REEKO_HTOWN I'm Rich Biiiiaaatch!

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    I rode one of the last Texas Limited trains to Galveston and back when I was a kid. Won it in some art contest.
     
  9. bigtexxx

    bigtexxx Contributing Member

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    lol Houston must have freeways. They move people, emergency vehicles and cargo over our spread out town. they're a necessity
     
  10. Rocket River

    Rocket River Member

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    We no longer build FREEways .. . only TOLLways

    Rocket River
     
  11. MadMax

    MadMax Contributing Member

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    I'm all for rail...particularly between Galveston and Houston. There used to be a line that ran between the two that is still the fastest, most direct route between those two places. I think it would have been great to have the ballpark connected so that you could hop a train in Galveston and arrive directly at the Ballpark for a game.

    But the only problem I have with this article is that the field literally was built over the rail yard there. I don't see how that could have been preserved and still built a new baseball park there.

    In Seattle, Safeco is built BY a train yard....but in Houston, MMP is built ON what was the train yard.
     
  12. da1

    da1 Member

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    I think that was the point of the article, that the park was built on the rail yard purposely to stop any form of rail coming to the park. Kind of cruel, but that's corruption for you. Also, I think there was a line that started in the late 1800's and ran until the 1930's. It's pretty sad we had a way better rail infrastructure overall in the city 100 years ago then we do now.
     
  13. da1

    da1 Member

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    There were many, many streetcar lines before there were ever freeways genius. But I'm sure you knew that :eek:
     
  14. Nick

    Nick Contributing Member

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    I'm guessing they could have moved the footprint closer to 59, and kept the rail lines in place.

    They moved it back, closer to union station/texas ave. and that's what covered the lines.
     
  15. MIAGI99

    MIAGI99 Member

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    Not only do we pay for the roads to be made but we pay to drive on them, double whammy!
     
  16. Mr.Scarface

    Mr.Scarface Member

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    The lack of Rail in Houston is tied to OIL. Big Oil has always run this city and alternate forms of transit would mean less OIL being used. It is sad.
     
  17. Johndoe804

    Johndoe804 Member

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    I don't think anybody is arguing that. It would be helpful to have rail, too. I live in a household of six, and we have six cars. Maybe we wouldn't need six cars if a few of us could jump a train for work. That and I wouldn't have to sit in that miserable traffic. Having more options is never a bad thing, Bigtexxx.
     
  18. Johndoe804

    Johndoe804 Member

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    I don't know about that. There are limited sources of energy. The effect of adding light rail to the mix could affect the local energy market in a manner beneficial to oil companies. I'm not saying that's the case, but from an economic perspective, these markets are interrelated, so it's difficult to make the assertion you're making.
     
  19. bigtexxx

    bigtexxx Contributing Member

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    actually da1 is arguing that streetcars could have done what freeways do today. lol -- he's a rail fanboy at its finest

    and don't get me wrong. With an unlimited pot of gold of course I would have rail (light and heavy), monorails, maglevs and magic carpets transporting people all over this city. It would be so awesome!
     

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